


The Hardest Part of This

by Mydnyte_Onyx



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cancer, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Keith has Cancer, M/M, Mentions of Cancer, Non-binary Pidge | Katie Holt, Prob gonna be sad?, Slow Burn, i got no pre-planned plot, i have no idea where imma go with this, just ideas, klance, klangst, making this up as i go tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2018-10-12 01:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10478526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mydnyte_Onyx/pseuds/Mydnyte_Onyx
Summary: When Shiro invites Keith to join his astronomy club (claiming that he's 'wasting away' in the apartment all day, whatever that's supposed to mean) Keith denies. Hell no. No way. But somehow, Shiro gets him there anyways. So Keith is thrown into a group of people, most of which he likes, some of which (Lance) he doesn't. Also, Keith has cancer.-i legit don't know where im going with this butokaynot a great summary but u know.here we go





	1. In Which It All Starts

When Keith’s brother had initially suggested he join his stupid astronomy club, Keith had noped right out.  
  
“C’mon, Keith, you’ll love it!” Shiro had insisted. “You need to get out of the house and socialize!” Keith stared blankly at him.  
  
“What’s wrong with the apartment?” Keith frowned, looking at the room around them. It was a good place, and Keith didn’t see a problem with it.  
  
“The apartment is fine, but you can’t stay alone inside it all the time. Go outside and make some friends!”  
  
“What’s the point in making friends when I’m probably gonna die soon?” Keith had regretted it as soon as he said it, Shiro’s expression only driving his guilt home.  
  
“We don’t know for sure that you’re going to die,” His brother reminded him weakly. “There’s a 26% survival rate for acute myeloid leukemia, you might be one of the survivors.” Keith just raised an eyebrow in response. “Come to my astronomy club, Keith. You might like it.” As much as Keith protested and refused, Shiro’s dad voice and expressions eventually won. Which is why Keith was standing outside a room at the local rec centre, trying to talk himself into opening the door.  
  
Closing his eyes, he gathered up all of his mental strength and knocked on the door a couple times. The sounds echoed in the empty hallway of the facility and Keith fiddled nervously with the bottom of his cropped jacket. The door abruptly swung open in the middle of Keith’s aimless fidgeting and he was struck with the sight of maybe the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She was tall and the combination of her dark cocoa skin and shining white hair was striking. If he wasn’t gay as hell, he’d be seriously attracted to her.  
  
“Hello!” She greeted him. “Are you Shiro’s brother?” At the mention of his name, Shiro appeared behind her.  
  
“Keith! You’re here!” He looked honestly surprised to see Keith outside the door, even though Keith had begrudgingly told him that he was coming.  
  
“Surprise,” Keith said flatly, making apathetic jazz hands at his brother. The girl looked between him and Shiro for a second before opening the door wider.  
  
“Please, come in!” She led Keith to one of two unoccupied chairs in a circle of people and sat down beside him. “My name is Allura, and I dance in my spare time.” Allura turned to the man on her right.  
  
“Well hello!” The man who spoke, making sure to follow Allura’s icebreaker sentiment, was an exuberant man with a distinct orange mustache. Keith couldn’t figure out whether or not the color was natural. “My name is Coran and I work here at the rec centre in mechanics!”  
  
“Shiro,” Shiro said, more for the practice than for actually introducing himself. “I’m studying astronomy in university.”  
  
“I’m Pidge,” The person beside Shiro spoke. “I like building robots. Oh, and I’m agender. Them/them pronouns please.” Pidge was small with a brown dandelion puff of hair, but somehow still seemed like someone Keith shouldn’t piss off.  
  
“I’m Hunk.” Hunk was full of smiles and warmth. Keith liked him instantly. “I really like cooking and engineering.” It was impossible not to smile back at Hunk. The smile disappeared when the man on Hunk’s right spoke.  
  
“The name’s Lance,” Lance shot him finger guns and a wink, and Keith frowned. “You must be the seventh planet in the solar system, ‘cause I love Uran-” Lance broke off as Shiro cleared his throat loudly. “I teach kids swimming lessons on the side,” He amended. Everyone turned to stare at Keith now, and it took him a second before he realized with a jolt that they were waiting for him to follow the stupid icebreaker pattern and introduce himself and tell them something about himself.  
  
“Uh,” Keith started stupidly. “I’m Keith.” He wasn’t sure what to say next. He was sure that ‘I’m going to fucking die’ wouldn’t fly well, but he couldn’t think of anything else. After a long moment of silence, he finally squeaked out, “Mothman?” He wasn’t sure what he expected anyone to do in response to his weak response, but he certainly wasn’t expecting the snort that came from his left.  
  
“What the hell is a ‘Mothman’?” Lance laughed. “You were supposed to say something about yourself, not spew nonsense.”  
  
Keith glared at the man. “Mothman is a very valid cryptid that makes sense!” he defended. “And I like it! What am I supposed to say then, if that’s not good enough?”  
  
“Cryptids are bullshit!” Lance cried out, his hands making motions all over the place as he spoke. “Say like, hobbies or a job you have or what you’re studying!”  
  
“I don’t have a real job and I don’t go to university and I mostly like to research things I’m interested in, like Mothman! So shut the fuck up!”  
  
“What the fuck? That’s not a real hobby! Don’t you do sports or something?” They were both shouting now, and everyone else in the room looked extremely uncomfortable, but neither stopped, waiting for the other to back down first.  
  
“No, I can’t! How am I supposed to do sports when-” Keith cut himself off. No, he decided. There was no way in hell he was going to tell this asshole about his cancer. Keith despised the looks of pity he got when people found out that he was probably going to die. This was the first normal interaction he’d had in months, even Shiro had been treating him like a delicate flower, and he wasn’t going to ruin that. Besides, even if he wanted to finish his sentence, he was panting hard. It was a symptom of the cancer, the doctors had told him.  
  
“When what?” Lance questioned. He was still yelling. “Do you even have a good excuse for that?” Keith met Shiro’s eyes across the room and shook his head, mentally hoping that Shiro would get the message not to tell Lance.  
  
“Nevermind,” Keith mumbled, the fight fading out of him. He was really fucking tired all of a sudden. Probably another cancer thing, he supposed. Lance still looked ready to fight him, but the man with the headband - Hunk, he reminded himself - put a hand on Lance’s shoulder and quietly told him to leave Keith alone. Lance begrudgingly obeyed, although he still sent Keith dirty looks throughout the rest of the meeting. The club was discussing the new discovery of the Trappist-1 system, specifically the planets in the habitable zone, planets e, f and g, but Keith didn’t really contribute or pay very much attention. He was too exhausted to come up with anything worthwhile even though he had researched the system a fair bit the week before. He barely registered when the meeting ended and everyone but Shiro, Allura and Coran left.  
  
“You doing alright, my boy?” Coran asked kindly, startling Keith out of his drained stupor. “You look a little tired there.”  
  
“Hmm,” He made a sleepy noise in response. “Jus’ a little.” The slur in his words conveyed that he was much more tired than he claimed to be and Coran looked over to Shiro in concern and Shiro made eye contact with Keith, silently asking permission to tell Coran. Keith was pretty sure Shiro had already told Allura, but she was going to hear either way. Keith nodded.  
  
“Keith, uh..” Shiro started, seeming to be trying hard to word it right. “He’s sick.”  
  
“Oh dear!” Coran said. “He should get some soup and bedrest until he gets over this.” Allura placed a hand gently on Coran’s shoulder. Yep, there was his confirmation. Shiro had definitely told her.  
  
“Not that kind of sick, Coran,” She grimaced. “I’m afraid Keith has cancer.”  
  
“Oh dear,” was all Coran had to say. He looked full of pity and Keith frowned slightly. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“Why? It’s not your fault,” Keith protested, still tired but slowly waking up. “Don’t tell the other club members. Please.” Coran nodded slowly. He seemed to understand and Keith appreciated that.  
  
Shiro hoisted Keith to his feet and Keith pushed him off when he tried to help him walk. “Bye Allura, Coran,” He nodded. “I’m going to take him home now.” Keith waved to them as they left the room. The rest of the way home was a blur of traffic and as soon as they were back at their apartment Keith made a beeline for his bed, barely even bothering to take his socks off before falling asleep. With this day alone being more eventful than his entire month, he goddamn needed that rest and he knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. uh. you made it to the end of the first chapter. thanks and also congrats i guess ?? idk. ill prob update soon, but who knows. i aint no cool author with a schedule and planned shit. the next chapters will prob be longer anyway, thanks again for reading. ill be back.


	2. In Which Things Don't Turn Out As Keith Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> keith gets added to the groupchat and he gets coffee except it doesnt go how he expects it to

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guy im so so so sorry for not updating sooner i have no excuses ive gotten tons of wonderful comments from lovely people telling me to keep going and i want to thank u all  
> ill try to update more often but i cant make any promises

The first thing Keith had the pleasure of hearing when he woke up was his phone, vibrating non-stop in all of its shitty samsung glory. He groaned aloud, rolling towards the phone and pulling it into bed with him, wonder what all the fuss was about. He resisted the urge to revoice his earlier groan as he realized that Shiro had added him into the goddamn astronomy club group chat.

 _ **Vader 2.0 has added Red to (∩・‿・)⊃━☆ﾟ.* [Vader 2.0, GremlinFucker, The Real Lancelot, Hunky-Dory, Coranic, and Queen of the Fuckbois]** _  
  
**GremlinFucker:** is that keith you just added  
**Vader 2.0:** Yes.  
**GremlinFucker:** run while you still can keith  
**GremlinFucker:** run  
**Vader 2.0:** Don't be a jerk, Pidge.  
**Vader 2.0:** The chat isn’t that bad.  
**GremlinFucker:** its not the chat its the people in it  
**Vader 2.0:** Pidge, the people here are perfectly good people.  
**GremlinFucker:** i think youre forgetting the kaltenecker incident  
**Vader 2.0:** …  
**Vader 2.0:** Point taken.  
**The Real Lancelot:** hey!!!  
**The Real Lancelot:** it was a perfectly good idea!!  
**GremlinFucker:** no  
**GremlinFucker:** it really wasnt  
**The Real Lancelot:** hunk i see u lurking back me up here!!  
**Hunky-Dory:** It really was a horrible idea  
**Hunky-Dory:** Sorry buddy  
**Red:** whats the kaltenecker incident?  
**The Real Lancelot:** oh man okay so!!  
**GremlinFucker:** lance no  
**The Real Lancelot:** this one time we went to this beach to chill, right?  
**The Real Lancelot:** and it just so happened that there was a cow farm beside the beach.  
  
At the words ‘cow farm’, Keith switched his phone onto do not disturb mode and slid it back onto his bedside table, rolling over to go back to sleep. Fuck that group chat and all of it’s ridiculous antics. Unfortunately, to Keith’s annoyance, just as he was slipping off to sleep again, Shiro knocked on Keith’s bedroom door.  
  
“Keith?” Shiro called through the wood. “Keith, you need to get up. We have a doctors appointment today.” Keith only mumbled something incoherent and nonsensical in reply, pulling the pillow over his head to block out Shiro’s voice. “If you get up quickly, I’ll buy you coffee afterwards.” It was a cheap shot, Shiro using Keith’s coffee addiction to bribe him out of bed, but damn if it didn’t work. Keith stumbled out of bed clumsily, more resembling a horribly drunk bar patron than not.  
  
The appointment itself was pretty boring to Keith, just the doctors blathering on like usual about his condition. He still had cancer and it hadn’t progressed too much, so as far as Keith was concerned it was pointless. Shiro had had to kick him under the table multiple times when he caught Keith not paying attention. After a couple hours, they were finally allowed to go and the doctors all said goodbye to Keith and Shiro, reminding them of the next appointment in two weeks. Keith waved bye to a couple of his favorite nurses as he followed Shiro out of the hospital building and into Shiro’s junker of a car. Keith knew Shiro would’ve loved to have a real car, but with the advantages of having a house instead of an apartment came the inevitable disadvantages like more expensive bills and things. Keith settled into the passenger seat and plugged his car into the AUX outlet, ignoring the look Shiro sent him as he turned on Green Day.  
  
“Are we still going to get coffee?” Keith asked, turning his head to look at Shiro. Shiro nodded. “Yeah. Do you mind if we go to a different place than usual? Allura works at one nearby to here and she’s been trying to convince me to come check it out.” A soft smile crossed his face.  
  
Keith smirked slightly, even though he knew Shiro probably wouldn’t see the gesture. “Shiro, do you have a crush?”  
  
Shiro blushed and stared with sudden utter determination at the road ahead. “I do not! Allura’s just a very good friend of mine, that’s all.” Keith made a face of disbelief, but let it slide. He turned to face the window and watched the scenery whiz by to waste time until they got to the coffeeshop. He let his mind wander to hypothetical scenarios and daydreaming about what it’d be like to go to space, or prove that Mothman is real.  
  
“We’re here,” Shiro informed him, breaking Keith out of his reverie.  Keith looked out at the coffeeshop they were parked in front of. It seemed like nothing special from the outside, a big sign above the shop reading, “The Altean Kingdom.” Keith stepped out of the car and followed Shiro inside. A bell rang above the door as they walked in, and Allura looked up from making a coffee to wave at them, her coworker ignoring the bell and continuing to take a customer’s order. Keith looked around the shop. Compared to the plain outside, the shop was surprisingly comforting and homey. There was a wooden tree silhouette behind the counter where Allura was, and a lot of the lighting came from hanging lanterns. Keith figured that as far as coffee shops went, it was pretty unique.

Shiro turned to Keith. “I’m going to go talk to Allura, can you get me a cappuccino?” He handed Keith a twenty and Keith scowled.

“Shiro-”

“I know, you don’t like talking to people, but please? Just this once?” Shiro practically begged him. Keith swallowed and nodded reluctantly. It wasn’t that he didn’t like talking to people, it was just that ordering in places gave him anxiety. He usually had Shiro order for him, but he guessed he’d try, if only for his brother. Shiro seemed pleased at Keith’s agreeance and he left to talk to Allura, who tapped her coworker on the shoulder and said a few things Keith couldn’t hear. He still couldn’t see her coworker’s face behind the machine, but he got the gist of their conversation. Allura nodded and took off her apron, taking Shiro’s arm as she came out from behind the counter and they left to go to a table in the corner. Keith got in line, wanting to just get it over with.  _ ‘You can do this, Keith,’ _ he thought to himself. _ ‘“Hi, can I get a cappuccino and an iced coffee please? Thanks.” That’s all you have to say.’ _ The person in front of him finished and Keith walked up to the cash register, looking up nervously when he had made it to where he needed to be. 

“Hi, can I-” He broke off and his eyes went wide.  _ ‘No no no no no, this can’t be happening!’ _

“You!” Lance’s eyes narrowed behind the cash register.  “You’re the asshole from astronomy club!” Keith scowled.

“I could say the same about you!” Keith growled back, crossing his arms over his chest. “Why do  _ you _ have to work here?”

“Uh, because I need money, you dick!” Lance hissed. The hostility between them was almost palpable. 

“Just get me a fucking cappuccino and an iced coffee!”

“Large or regular?”

“Large!”

“Fine! That’ll be nine dollars and thirteen cents!” Lance yelled and Keith shoved the money at Lance. 

“Fine! Keep the change, you dick!” He glared at Lance one last time before turning on his heel and storming off to where Shiro and Allura were to wait for his order to be called out. He didn’t look back at Lance, and he missed Lance’s tiny fond smile as he watched Keith go.

When Keith arrived at the table and flopped onto a chair beside his brother, Shiro and Allura looked up from staring into each other’s eyes or whatever they’d been doing, Keith hadn’t been paying attention to that. “What was that about?” Shiro asked curiously. Keith grunted.

“What is that guy’s problem? He’s such an asshole,” he complained, leaning his head back and staring at the ceiling. “I hate him.”

Shiro’s eyebrows furrowed and exchanged glances with Allura. “He’s a good guy, Keith,” Shiro chided. “He can be a little annoying sometimes, but he means well. You’ll get used to him.”

Keith scoffed and was about to retort when Lance called out their order. He looked at Shiro. “You can go get that, thanks.” Shiro got up compliantly in response and Keith was left alone with Allura. He shoved one hand into the pocket of his jeans and fiddled with a ball of lint from the bottom awkwardly.

“So, uh, Keith,” Allura started. She bit her lip for a moment before continuing. “How are you, uhm, doing? With, you know, everything...” She seemed hesitant to ask.

“You mean how am I doing with the cancer?” Keith asked blunty.

“Well - I mean when you put it that way it sounds-”

“You can just say it, Allura,” Keith interrupted. Allura shifted in her seat. “I have cancer, I know. I can handle it, I’m a big boy.” Allura looked like a kicked puppy, which Keith thought was stupid. He was the one with cancer here, shouldn’t he be the one feeling bad? He was about to say something that would likely make her feel even worse, but Shiro arrived back with their order, plus another drink. At Keith’s quizzical glance, he explained.

“Lance sent it over for Allura,” Shiro explained. Keith didn’t understand why that asshole would do something nice, but he shrugged it off. He took his iced coffee from Shiro with a nod of thanks and ignored the rest of the conversation as he sipped it, stuck deep in his thoughts. He was only startled out of them when he noticed both Shiro and Allura looking at him with concerned expressions across their faces. The next thing he noticed was the feeling of something wet trickling down his face.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Keith cursed as he got up and ran to the bathroom to stop the nosebleed. It was another goddamn symptom, of course, and they happened more often than Keith would have liked. He grabbed a couple paper towels and held them to his nose, waiting for the blood to stop. After what seemed like an eternity, it slowed down and finally stopped. He threw out his bloody towels and made his way back to the table, where he found Shiro alone. 

“Allura said to tell you goodbye,” Shiro said as he stood up from the table. He led Keith out the doors of the shop and they got into the car. “I’m sorry about that, Keith. I didn’t mean for you to get into a fight with Lance.” Keith shrugged.

“I seriously don’t know what his deal is. I’ve done nothing wrong and yet he’s seems to take personal offense to everything I do.”

“You’ll figure it out, one of these days.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. uh. i didnt proofread this but i hope it looks good??? if anyone want to edit for me just hmu man id be so thankful  
> itd prob only be occasionally tho cos i have problems with updatin reguarly


	3. Chapter Three: In Which Cassini is Mourned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Lance, I don’t know about this.” Shiro bit his lip and crossed his arms across his chest.  
> “What’s so bad about it?”  
> -  
> Astronomy club!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!! Sorry for having such a long wait, i suck at updating regularly. Thank yall so much for ur support, it means a lot!! Im so sorry for never updating and i really hope yall can forgive me. I dont mean to be inconsistent on purpose, i just have lots of trouble with working up the motivation to write. If you guys have any tips for that, please let me know cos i could really use that. Without further ado, on with the chapter!

“Did you guys hear about the Cassini probe?” Pidge asked the next week at the weekly astronomy club meeting.  
Hunk immediately broke from his side conversation with Lance to respond. “Yeah, I thought it was kinda poetic how it went down.” He looked close to crying, Keith noticed. These people were so goddamn weird.  
  
“It did its job well,” Keith commented matter-of-factly. “It really gathered a lot of useful information about Saturn.” His eyes narrowed as they met Lance’s gaze, who flinched slightly and shrunk back in his seat with a frown. Keith furrowed his eyebrows. He hadn’t thought his glare was that intimidating.  
  
“It will be missed.” A tear trailed down Hunk’s cheek, but it was the only one he let out, and Keith would’ve missed it if he wasn’t staring so hard at Hunk to distract himself from looking at Lance. He had found himself doing that a lot lately, staring at Lance like he was trying to etch every detail of the brunette’s face into his mind for eternity. He couldn’t stop himself no matter how hard he tried, and it pissed him off to no end.

  
“Hunk, are you crying?” Allura asked tentatively, bringing Hunk’s plight to the groups attention.

  
“Just a little,” Hunk sniffed, wiping the stray tear away. “Cassini was a good probe. NASA’s final broadcast of it was a sad time.”

  
“Awh, bro,” Lance cooed, leaning over in his chair to wrap his arms around Hunk in a hug.

  
“Bro,” Hunk reciprocated.

 

“Brooooo!”

 

“Bro!”

  
“BR-”

  
“Nope! I’m stopping this here, I’ve seen you guys do this for like a whole fucking hour before, and I don’t want to relive that,” Pidge interrupted, much to Keith’s relief. “Shall we continue discussing the Cassini Probe?”

  
Keith wrinkled his nose at the suggestion. It was nothing against the probe or anything, but he wasn’t completely sure he could handle much more of the dramatics.

  
“Cassini was cool and all but dude! I just had the best idea!” Lance exclaimed. Pidge looked up at him sharply. “Let’s play space tag!” He threw his hands out and looked around the group for takers. Keith quirked his head to the side in confusion and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to figure out what space tag was. He’d never heard of it before, though that wasn’t too surprising because he hadn’t played many games with other kids in his childhood, being more of a loner.

“Uh.” Keith frowned at Lance. “What’s space tag?”

  
“No, Keith, you gotta stop indulging him!” Pidge protested. “It’s what he wants! Don’t give in!”

  
“Thanks, Pidge,” Lance drawled sarcastically before turning his attention to Keith. “See, Mullet, space tag is basically like Marco Polo except instead of saying ‘Marco’ and ‘Polo’ you say ‘Space’ and the other people say ‘Tag’ and there are obstacles in the room for the person who’s it to bump into.” He put a hand by his mouth and lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “They’re supposed to represent asteroids.” He returned his voice to it's normal volume before continuing. “We made the game up ourselves.”

  
_‘No kidding’_ , Keith thought. “Oh. Okay.”

  
“Lance, I don’t know about this.” Shiro bit his lip and crossed his arms across his chest.

  
“What’s so bad about space tag?”

  
“Last time we played, you tripped over the desk with Coran’s mug of tea and spilt it everywhere and broke the mug, and it took us so long to clean up that we ran into the Ladies Book Club’s meeting time.” Keith snorted at Shiro’s recollection.

  
“Why is it always Lance with the bad ideas?” Keith asked, half sarcastic and half legitimately curious.

  
“Ouch,” Allura voiced with a laugh.

  
“Wow, okay, thanks man.” Lance sounded wounded and Keith bit his lip to keep from laughing.

  
“We wonder that too,” Hunk chuckled.

  
“Okay, I expected that from Keith, but you Hunk? That is utter betrayal!” Lance turned away from Hunk pouting, tracing a mock tear down his cheek before crossing his arms. Keith made the mistake of watching Lance cross his arms, the motion drawing his attention to Lance’s broad shoulders and thin waist. He definitely hadn’t lied about being a swimming teacher, that much was obvious, and damn if that tight blue shirt wasn’t doing wonders for his form, even if it did have a bad pun plastered on the front of it and it made Keith want to drag him to the janitor’s closet down the hall and - no. Fucking hell no. That was not what Keith wanted to think about. This was Lance of all people, the one that had seemed to make it his personal mission to antagonize Keith, though he wasn’t doing too good of a job of that today. Keith mentally scolded himself. He would sooner fuck eels in the ocean than think of Lance like that, he told himself.

  
So instead of smiling at Lance’s antics good-naturedly, Keith narrowed his eyes in a glare at Lance. Lance met his eyes, but instead of glaring back like Keith expected, Lance forced an uneasy smile at him and looked away. Keith wasn’t sure what to make of the new, weird signals Lance was giving him, so like any reasonable person, he decided to ignore them.

  
“I’m sorry buddy,” Hunk shrugged, “but it’s true. If it’s any consolation, I love you anyways.”

  
“Bro,” Lance put his hand on Hunk’s knee and leaned over to stare into his eyes.

  
“No!” Pidge and Keith yelled at the same time. Lance and Hunk looked up sheepishly, though Keith didn’t believe that they were sorry for the antics. He moved his focus to his brother, who was checking his watch. ( _It's just like him to have an actual analog watch on his wrist,_ Keith thought.)

  
“Hey, it looks like our time slot’s almost up,” Shiro pointed out, standing up and pulling his chair across the room to put it back in it’s original neat stack. Keith followed his lead, as did the rest of the group. They spent a few minutes putting the room back the way that the staff at the rec center liked it and collecting their belongings. Keith was grabbing his bag and coffee mug from the corner he had shoved it in when a shadow fell over him. He turned around, expecting to find Shiro waiting for him, but instead he found Lance. He tilted his head in confusion and raised an eyebrow. Keith had not had enough coffee for another fight with Lance, and he was dreading whatever Lance was about to say to him. What came out of Lance’s mouth, however, was not what he was expecting.

  
“Hey, man,” Lance started, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve noticed that we kind of, maybe, got off on the wrong foot.”

  
“Maybe?” Keith questioned incredulously.

  
“Okay, it was a definite thing, we definitely got off on the wrong foot, and I know that’s probably my fault and stuff and I’m sorry but can we maybe stop this hateful rivalry? We can have more of a Lance-and-Keith-neck-and-neck kind of competition thing instead, and maybe be friends instead of trying to piss each other off all the time? ‘Cause I don’t mean to be all prickly and a jerk and all that stuff but sometimes I get really competitive and I come off wrong and it’s probably something I should work on but-”

 

Keith cut off Lance’s rambling before he could go any further. “I’ll agree to be your sort of friend on one condition.”

 

Lance’s eyebrows shot up. “Yeah, okay, what is it?”

 

“Use your employee discount at the Altean Kingdom to buy me a coffee?”

  
“Yeah, anytime man,” Lance beamed, holding a hand out for Keith to shake. “Actually, do you wanna go now? I was kinda hoping we could, I don’t know, like talk out issues over or something. Maybe be friends?”

  
Keith’s eyes widened. This was a surprise, for sure, but Keith couldn’t say he didn’t like where this was going. He was a little lacking on the friends thing, and if nothing else Shiro would be proud of him for at least trying. “Yeah, sure, let me just tell Shiro,” Keith agreed. Lance nodded eagerly. He shifted his bag on his shoulder and made his way over to Shiro.

  
“Hey, Shiro, can you take this home for me?” He held up his empty coffee mug.

  
“Yeah, sure,” Shiro said, seemingly bewildered. “Why can’t you do it though?”

  
“I was gonna go grab a coffee with Lance before going home.” Shiro’s eyebrows shot up.

  
“Are you talking about the Lance over there?” Shiro gestured towards Lance is the corner and Lance looked up, waving a hand at them.

  
“Yeah.”

  
“Since when do you guys get along? I mean, I’m all for this but what happened and why are you guys suddenly getting along?”

  
“I still don’t know what to think of him, but he apologized.”

  
“Keith, I’m so proud of you for accepting his apologies and giving him a chance,” Shiro smiled at him, putting his hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith frowned.

  
“What? No, I’m mostly going because he offered me free coffee,” Keith explained and Shiro laughed.

  
“Just go, Keith. I’ll see you later. Text me if you need me to pick you up or anything, okay?” Keith nodded in response and ran back over to Lance, waving at Shiro before walking out of the room.


	4. In Which They Make Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So. Talking things over.” He seemed to take a second to gather his thoughts while he grabbed the pink and blue concoction from the table and took a long sip. "I'm sorry."

When they arrived at the cafe, Keith was immediately bombarded by the smell of coffee, though admittedly that wasn’t unusual for a coffee shop. The coffee shop didn’t look different than it had the last time Keith had visited, strings of fairy lights still strung across the walls and pretty lanterns hanging from the ceiling, but this time Keith noticed that in addition to the sections of seating that were just like any seating section from any Starbucks, there was a carpeted area with shorter tables and beanbags. Lance seemed to catch Keith staring at the section.

 

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool, right? That’s my favorite place to sit,” He told Keith with a wide grin, gesturing to a table off to the corner of the beanbag section. Keith nodded, still too utterly bewildered by the complete 180 of Lance’s personality to know how to respond. “How about I grab some coffee for us - employee’s discount, hell yeah - and then we can talk or whatever?”

 

Keith nodded again, feeling horribly awkward and out of place. Lance seemed satisfied with Keith’s answer and walked over to get in line. Keith watched Lance as he walked to the counter and ordered before looking back at the beanbag chairs. The were multiple short tables surrounded by beanbags, only a few not taken, so Keith grabbed the closed table and collapsed into the bright red beanbag. He leaned his head back for maximum comfort levels and closed his eyes in bliss. Goddamn, if this wasn’t amazing, he didn’t know what was. 

 

Keith realized that he must’ve fallen asleep in the chair as he heard a good natured chuckle come from above him. “Keith, my dude, have a good nap?” Lance said as he placed two drinks down on a short table near Keith’s beanbag. In his post-nap bleariness, Keith noticed that Lance had brought back a simple iced coffee along with some ridiculous looking pink and blue frappuccino. It took him by surprise that Lance had remembered his previous order. A part of his mind reminded him of Shiro and Allura’s insistences that Lance was ‘a good guy’ and that ‘he’d get used to him’, and even though proving Shiro right on things like this wasn’t Keith’s favorite thing to do, he was willing to begrudgingly admit that maybe Lance wasn’t so horrible after all.

 

Keith sat up in the beanbag and pouted at Lance. “Shut up.” He grabbed the drink and took a sip. Yeah, that was definitely iced coffee. “Thanks, Lance.” He smiled at Lance before going back to his drink.

 

Lance seemed satisfied with Keith’s response and took a seat on a vibrant blue beanbag beside Keith. “So. Talking things over.” He seemed to take a second to gather his thoughts while he grabbed the pink and blue concoction from the table and took a long sip. “I, uh, shit. I’m sorry for being a dick to you. You didn’t deserve that. You, uh, still don’t deserve it. I just, fuck, I don’t know. I’m really sorry.”  Lance put the drink back down on the table and turned to look Keith in the eyes. “Really man, it was uncalled for. I’m sorry for it.”

 

It took Keith a few seconds to figure out how to respond. “I- Thanks. That means a lot to hear.” Keith grinned softly up at Lance from underneath his bangs. 

 

Lance mirrored Keith’s expression, though his grin was larger and more carefree. He stuck out a hand towards Keith. “Friends?”

 

Keith took the hand gratefully and shook it. “Friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhecc im so sorry its been so long and this is so short but!!!! here it is heres a chapter i rly hope u like it and thank u so much to yall for the kudos and kind comments ily


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